To Conquer An Angel
by Delilah Draken
Summary: The classical story about unrequited love from a new point of view. (This is a Crossover)
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER:

I don't own anything. The Phantom of the Opera belongs to Gaston Leroux. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the musical. Susan Kay gave the Persian a name in her novel Phantom, so Nadir is her creation. Though he was a real person, the novel Dracula comes from Bram Stoker. Some elements are from the movie by Francis Ford Coppola.

DEDICATION:

To my dear grandfather. May this story give you something to smile about in heaven, Papa. I miss you.

* / * \ * / * \ * / * \ * / * \ *

T o C o n q u e r A n A n g e l

by Delilah Draken

~ * ~ * ~

~ Prologue ~

It was a cold night in December…

I know how stupid it sounds to starts a narrative like this but I don't know any other way to do it. Then I didn't have much knowledge of writing or storytelling, and today I don't know it either. But it seems so right to tell you this. I have this feeling like the story wants to be told. It wants to be told like it was told to me in this cold night in December.

I was doing quite well in my new job. The customers liked me; I got enough money in one night to take the next one off. I was a good life for a prostitute. But one night everything changed.

He was a new one. I just saw him for a short moment and knew he would not be easy to please. He simply screamed wealth and old nobility. First I thought he didn't want my service, but I was wrong. God, how wrong I was.

I was prepared to do his wishes as he surprised me. "I don't want that, Miss. Not yet. But I would be delighted if you could listen to me. I need to tell someone what really happened. Perhaps after this confession I may be able to make my peace with the world."

He paid me an enormous sum only to sit in this little room and listen to him. I didn't understand this behaviour. He just stood at the window staring out in the night and told me the story of his life

And now this story will be told to you through me. He wanted the world to know what really happened. The world shall know it…

~ * ~ * ~

~ Chapter One ~

"You are going to starve to death if you don't go out and find some food."

Her voice was quite an annoyance, but I couldn't blame her for her protectiveness. She was only a seven-year-old child. A child with an extraordinary intellect, but nevertheless only a child. Sometimes it scared me how she thought about things, how she understood the circumstances of my live and why I lived then like I live now.

Elaine knew all my secrets. Every one of them. It was in her nature to know these things, and it was also her nature to guard all she knew till the day her existence ceased to be. But today she was strangely open; her face gleamed with happiness. This disturbed me for I had never seen this girl happy. Thoughtful, amused and certainly laughing about something only she could understand with her odd sense of humour. Happy was a word not included in her extreme wide vocabulary. So why was she showing this disturbing emotion?

"Oh Master, I have found the perfect friend for you. He plays the violin so beautifully. He is intelligent. He is just like you. You will love him." On and on went her story of how and when she found this mysterious boy who was destined by her to be my future guardian. "…and you have to go see him like now. I would never forgive me if I let you dwelve in your depressions like you have done all my life. You will be very lonely after we went away with Sean to visit his family. I want you to be happy and I know that Erik can help you."

My mind seemed to have taken a vacation because I didn't know who she talked about. "Erik?…" Elaine answered with a tale about this boy's astonishing capacities. He was capable of singing like an angel, but would never speak to anyone who talked to him. He played the violin like he was born to do it. He was a magician who roamed the mountains on top of a black dragon. The people said he was the devil's son. I didn't believe on word. But I was curious and so my beautiful and smart little princess Elaine accomplished her task of getting me out of the house. It didn't occur to me till years later that she manipulated me. She played me like a musician an instrument and I let it happen although I hate to be controlled.

I went to the fair to see for myself this mysterious boy who captured my girl's heart in an instance.

To say I was shocked would be the greatest misconception of the century. I expected to see some clever gypsy child with more tricks down his sleeve than myself, but what I saw took my breath away.

She didn't lie about his living conditions. This boy was forced to live in a cage not more than 4 square meters with no walls but ceiling and floor. To get the perfect effect he was also bound to the iron bars of the cage. I could tell he had been crying. His eyes were so empty it hurt to see him sitting on the cage floor motionless. He didn't move one muscle except the one needed to play the violin. I simply had to talk to him. I needed to understand him. I had to get the answers to my questions.

He didn't react to my speaking. Perhaps he didn't understand me. Perhaps I used the wrong language…

"I am quite capable of understanding you, Sir." He spoke in perfect Romanian. Even without the hint of an accent, but I knew he was not from my country. He was too sure about his surroundings to be one of my people.

"I see you had a good teacher. Were you taught to speak my language by the same one who taught you to play?"

Now it seemed I had hurt him. There was this terrible pain in his eyes that burned right to my soul, that is if I possessed one.

"No one taught me to speak and my music tutor is not of your interest, Monsieur." Now he was angry. White hot rage stole away all his reason and made him go at me. Fortunately the bars of the cage were between us. I would have suffered some serious injuries if that hadn't been the case.

"I seem to have found some circus boy with a bit of temperament. Say, what would you say if I let you out of this cage?" That quieted him the same moment the words left my mouth.

"What would you have me do to acquire my freedom?" Was that hate in his eyes? Did I hear the cold loathing in his voice or did I imagine it? I knew I had to make him forget this fears which crept in his thoughts. I would never do such things to an unwilling partner, man or woman.

"I would never do what you think, Boy." The hate was ebbing but the distrust was still there. "I would never take a partner who doesn't come willingly to me."

"You wouldn't… want payment, Monsieur?" Why did he sound like a small child? He was perhaps 15 of 16 years old, so why this childlike voice? I began to hate the men who owned this travelling fair. What had they done to this boy?

"Nothing you don't want to give freely." I walked away from the cage and looked for the owners. What I told them to let him go, I don't remember. Perhaps something about him being my long lost son and heir to my fortune. Perhaps they were afraid of me. I really don't know what it was but they accepted my money and set him free.

"You told them WHAT?" I was amusing to hear him that surprised.

"I told them that I am your father, that you are the heir to my name and fortune and that I would pay any sum they deemed necessary to free you. I simply told them the lies they less expected to hear." He followed me quietly. I wondered then how a human being could walk so silent. Not a sound was made by his footsteps. Than he stopped and stared at me.

"I know what you are. I don't know who you are but I know what you are." This cold words spoken with his silken voice made me turn around and watch him watching me. Quite some time went by before any of us would make a move.

"I am Vlad Tepez Draculea. To your service, Monsieur Master Violinist."

"Erik. Your obedient servant, Monsieur le vampire."

Only after this first introduction did I see that the right side of his face was covered by a mask. I now knew who he was, but he never told me what he was. A human being he was not, that was as sure as I was dead for more than one century.

~ * ~ * ~

~ Interlude ~

"You try to play a Louis with me? I have read all the novels. I don't believe in people saying they are vampires. Such things only happen in novels… or movies."

He stared at me with cold detachment. He wasn't interested in anything I could offer. He only wanted some poor soul to tell his story. In this moment, while he watched me watching him, I felt terribly sorry for this man. He had to be very lonely to go to a whore, a very expensive one but nevertheless a whore, to find a listening ear. What was it that made him going? What severe pain did he hide behind his crystal blue eyes? Eyes of such a light blue you have to look twice to see they really have some color.

"You know, all this legends, the novels and films you watch in cinemas give you a totally wrong picture of the undead. First we don't have to sleep trough the day, in the past it was only a way of passing the time. Today we've got cable TV and computers to entertain us for hours. It isn't necessary anymore to hide from daylight. We simply don't leave the house and watch the world outside protected by UV-proof windows."

"You don't sleep?" What a silly question. You just get smarter in your old age, Trisha. Now he thinks you don't believe him, which you don't do, but the trust of the customer is always good.

"Oh but I trust you, little one. But let me go on with my story. You have to understand what a man Erik was, what horrors hid behind his knowing gaze and how he saw the world and its inhabitants, to truly see the whole picture. I don't try to tell you about my life. I don't want you to know all the little secrets and wisdoms of vampirism. I want you to see him in all his glory. I want you to get a glimpse of his genius, of his curse. I want you… No, I need you to know the pain of a child who withered and died in his search for acceptance. A child who in his yearning for love was forced to hide all that made him the man he was behind a mask because the world was afraid of him."

"He was feared because of what he was. Like a vampire he was able to act like a human, to -look- like a human and hide in the masses. But like a child of the undead he couldn't hide for long…

T o B e C o n t i n u e d


	2. Chapter 2

~ Chapter Two ~

He was 22 when the Persians came.

I got word that the Shah of Persia was interested in a magician with the voice of an angel and the face of the devil. How ridiculous simple this description of Erik was. And how disturbingly accurate.

Then Erik lived in Niznij Novgorod. He liked to play the great magician at the fair and loved the adoration from the masses while he did his magic and sang or played his beloved violin. He loved their fear at the end of his show when all of them couldn't get out fast enough. His tent with its black silk walls and the blood red cushions changed before their very eyes in a palace of doom. They ran away screaming.

I believe it made him laugh for hours.

Anyway, I was going to tell you about the Persians. Nadir was a man you don't want to have on your bad side. He could easily dispatch you without making a scene. You were simply forgotten.

What I try to tell you is, Nadir was not a nice man in the figurative sense. He was likely to kill exactly the same way as Erik would do. He was one of the most dangerous predators I have ever seen. 

Nadir was the Daroga of Mazenderan.

The time Nadir arrived at the fair in Niznij Novgorod I was not there. I was hunting my prey.

Oh, you think I was out killing humans for food? Yes, I did that too, but it wasn't the prey I hunted. I hunted a raven.

Exactly one week after I freed him from the gypsies Erik came to me with a proposition…

"You really want to starve to death." he said. "Elaine told me about it, but I didn't believe her. Why do you do that to yourself, Prince?" He never called me by my name. It was always Monsieur, Prince or Domn. It seemed to me he wanted to distance himself from the world. Knowing what happened to him I let him play his namecaling.

"Elaine tells many things, Erik. You shouldn't always believe what she says."

"But why? You are an old vampire. You have more power I could imagine, and I imagine a lot. And you sit here day-to-day and brood over a picture, which shows nothing more than a face you can't recognize if you knew who it should be. Why do that? Don't you have anything to live for?"

"A vampire lives for the hunt." I answered flatly. I didn't like how he talked about the portrait of my love.

"You like to hunt you say? But why don't you go out and hunt?" I couldn't answer. I didn't know why I stayed at home and just stared at the picture. I didn't know why I didn't want to go out. In the past I was out every night. I fed with a hunger that it sometimes scared me. But why I stopped doing what my nature ordered me to I couldn't say.

"Perhaps you need good prey. Perhaps it bores you to death that you have no prey who can make the hunt last." For a moment I thought his eyes were glowing golden, but it was only my imagination. In my confusion I blinked and found myself glancing at a shimmering black raven's feather.

"How about a little game, Monsieur? You need a good prey, you get one. Who is better prey than a predator. Just follow the feathers. We will see how good a hunter you are, Prince." With this words he vanished in thin air. Only a silken black raven's feather remained.

"Let the games begin…"

~ * ~ * ~ 

~ Interlude ~

"He played a game of cat and mouse with you?" I couldn't resist asking. This story got weirder and weirder. There was no need for me faking interest in his tale for I really wanted to hear it, but some things simply sounded not real. Okay, a vampire telling you a story about his life isn't exactly the best example of realism but some parts were… I can't describe it.

"Yes, he did." the vampire, Vlad, answered me. "He was the best prey I ever got. Do you want to know why it was such a fun to hunt Erik? I never got closer than fifty miles. He was always a step ahead of me, that was intriguing. He hindered me to begin brooding again. Do I sound like this TV guy, Angel I think is his name?" What? He has a strange way of changing the topic.

"Hmm?"

"What I thought. Darling, I think it is better when you simply sit back and listen." I don't know what happened to me, but the only thing I was able to do was sitting back and listening to him. I never believed in the stories about vampires being able to control your mind. Now I am no so sure about it…

~ * ~ * ~

I followed Erik's trace of feathers through Europe and Asia. I never got close enough to see him, but I knew he was near. I only learned of his show in Niznij Novgorod by luck. 

I found his feather in Moskow and decided to have a bit fun in the city as I heard a traveller tell another one that he saw a great magician in Niznij. He saw a magician with the voice of an angel and the face of the devil. You can imagine what came next. I was on the fastest ship to Niznij Novgorod I could get.

After three days I arrived at the Great Fair and my luck went like it came. I didn't find him. The last thing I heard of him for several years was that Erik went with a foreigner. He went away to never come back.

I was furious. I went on a killing spree. But I didn't find Erik. Nadir did…

Because I was not there as it happened, I will recite someone who was there and lived to tell about it.

T O B E C O N T I N U E D


	3. Chapter 3

~ Interlude ~

He got this strange look in is eyes. I don't know how to describe it. It seemed to me like something between heart wrenching agony and the most obvious bliss you can imagine. Perhaps my imagination was playing tricks with me. It had to be. I couldn't stand to see him really cry…

He told me he would recite someone who was with Erik during that time. He would tell me the story of another soul who knew this mysterious young man the vampire hunted for fun. The vampire had now an old looking book in his hands. From my point of view I could see it as written in some Arabic language. The book was a diary…

~ * ~ * ~

~ Chapter Three ~

* * From the journal of Reza Khan * *

Funny, how your dreams can be smashed in one short moment…

The doctors are gone now. I am alone. Again. He is always far away from me when the physician comes to visit me. He can't stand the thought of me dying. He thinks I don't know it. He believes I don't understand this scientific gibberish the doctors tell him. I understand better than he dares to think about. He is afraid of losing me. That is why he is always hiding while the physician looks at me. That is why he can't bare to look me in the eye. He loved her more than live and now he is forced to lose the one person on this planet who resembles her. Because he loved her he hates me now. My father hates me because I am dying…

Last night he came to me. He told me the same stories he always tells me. I love you, Reza. You have to be the lord of the house during my absence, my boy. I will be back soon. You don't have to be afraid; you will get better in no while. The doctor said it only yesterday. And after the usual monologue he changed his topic.

"The Shah sends me away to Russia. I am to find a great magician. This man is the greatest magician on the world I am told." Neat, he thinks that will make me happy? Why should the thought of an artist I will probably never see amuse me? "I know He will get angry with me, but I will bring this magician to you before I escort him to the Shah. You will be the first to see all the wonders this man can do." And with these words he was gone. My father, Nadir Khan, the Daroga of Mazenderan vanished out of my miserable life like he always did. Without a trace to follow and my wallet full of money I can never spend because I am not allowed to leave the house. He has a strange way of showing his affections to me, don't you agree?

~ * ~ * ~

~ Interlude ~

"Am I boring you?" The question shook me out of my dreams. 

"No. No, it is really interesting. I want to know what happens next." God, how often do I have to tell him that? This so-called vampire is a bit annoying with his constant need to reassure himself of my interest. He pays me to listen. Of course I do this, though it is not my normal occupation through the night. He pays well enough.

He looked at me with a smirk playing around his lips and began to read again. You could think he has memorized the text because he reads without seeing the page. His eyes are always on me…

~ * ~ * ~

My father vanished from my life for seven months. 

During this time I my health got worse. I tried to ignore it as best as I could, but you know… pain is a good reminder of almost anything. I hated my life. I was bored…

The day my sire returned I have forced to stay in bed. Order of the doctor. How amusing!

Anyway, I missed the Great Entrance. Later I was told the magician, our guest – Erik – scared our servants quite good. He came on horseback with my father. They would have arrived earlier if not for the magician's phobia of closed rooms. He didn't treat on the ship the shah provided for his treasured guest and future entertainment, he wanted to travel by land. And my poor father was bound to serve the magicians every whim. I laughed so hard my entrails hurt.

Two days after my father's arrival I was allowed to see him. I knew he didn't want me in the room the second I opened the door…

~ * ~ * ~

~ Interlude ~

I looked up only to see the girl dozing on her bed. Why I ordered her to stay awake I didn't know at this moment. Perhaps I wanted to look into her eyes when she finally understood everything. Perhaps I just wanted her to be awake.

Laying the diary next to her head I turned the covers down and laid the girl so that she could sleep properly. I was a fool to think she could comprehend it all in one night. Of course she needed rest…

I went to leave her but turned back, whispering words I said the last time over one hundred years ago.

"May your dreams show you the way to obey your destiny."

In this moment I knew I would never return to this enchanting girl. I would leave this powerful and all the same clueless courtesan to forget her. But I can never forget her. I can never forget you…

For your dreams showed you the way to obey your destiny. Your dreams showed you the way to my heart…

T O B E C O N T I N U E D


	4. Chapter 4

~ Chapter Four ~

* * The Dream * *

White.

Everything was a sterile white. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, all you could see was this white. It were the surroundings of a hospital.

Screams.

A woman in pain. She is with the doctor behind this door over there. It is the door you can see a man pacing before. He seems nervous. Nervous, agitated and a bit frightened. He hates it.

He hates to feel this helpless.

The door opens and a young man comes out. At the first look he seems not old enough to be a doctor. He is older than you think.

"You have two beautiful and healthy sons, brother."

The man stops his pacing. "Son, I have a son? No, I have TWO sons. I have twins. Two healthy little boys…"

You don't want to listen to him much longer. He shows the same gratitude most fathers show shortly after their children's birth. Yes, he is quite happy.

The room is pink. The furniture, the draperies and the clothes in the cupboards. It is the mother's bedroom. The father is not allowed to enter this rooms. He wouldn't like to anyway.

A middle aged woman sits beside the bed. She holds two little bundles in her arms. One has blond hair like his mother, the other black like his father. Like night and day.

"Why do you think you have to do this? Why do you have to listen to your father, daughter?" the woman asks.

"You know it is for the best." This is the only answer the woman gets. The only answer her daughter is willing to give.

The woman looks at the bundles, her grandchildren. She sees perfection and beauty in the blond one. She knows he will live a happy life. The dark one on the other side…

He has the same eyes as his father the woman thinks. The same jet black hair. She looks at the baby's face and smiles. "You will find your true love in no time, little one. Oh, don't look at me as if you don't believe what I say."

She thought the baby smirking at her full of mischief. He is like his father. Exactly like him.

It never came to her that the little boy looked nothing like his father. She didn't think much about the baby's face…

"You can't do that, Father. It will be his death!"

The voice bellowed through the halls. It was the babies' father.

"I can and I will, Son. You can rant as much you like, you will never accomplish me changing my orders."

They didn't hear the doors opening, so engrossed were the two men in their arguing. The boys' grandmother frowned at the sight of the old conflict between father and son.

"Son, Husband, I bring you the children." Her voice was calm. She hoped to tame the hate between the two men she loved. 

"Let me see them, Mother." There were tears in his eyes which he tried to hide. His father would not approve of this show of emotions.

"I am sorry." With these words she laid one of the boys on a nearby table. With a blinding flash of light the dark twin vanished. Her job was done. Damn you, that you forced me to do this. Damn you, that you made me hurt my son.

"You are not allowed to have any contact with the remaining child till his adulthood." Her husband took the blond baby and left with a rain of sparkles.

"Why? Why, Mother? Does he hate me that much? Is he that afraid of me?" Now the tears flew freely. In the arms of his mother he could be the man he really was. In his mother's arms there was no need to play the tough warrior.

"I don't know. I really don't know." 

He is pacing.

He is pacing and talking to himself.

He is planning something.

The young man watched his uncle with interest. "What cha doin, Unc?"

His uncle stopped and looked at his nephew. It was like he only now remembers the young man was in the room.

"I have a job for you, Strife."

He wanted to die. He wanted to die and be buried next to his love. Nothing of this was allowed.

After the battle he came home, only to hear his love was dead. His love committed suicide. Thinking him dead his love climbed the castle's tower and sprang into the river which ran in the gorge beside the building. He was devastated.

And now he had nothing. Nothing to live for, nothing to fight for, simply nothing. But was his wish granted? No.

He was on the floor beside his love's body. His tears went dry a long time ago. He thought he was going insane. He heard voices without bodies.

"And you think he is the right one for this?"

"Unc, look at him. He is perfect. One of the best warriors of this era and he isn't wanted by the Master of Boredom."

"The Christian god doesn't want him? What did he do?"

"He was mourning his dead love. They thought it a sacrilege."

"Punishment?"

"He is eternal and nocturnal, Uncle. Like I said perfect for the job."

One of the voices was addressing him. "Hey, wake up. I said wake up… what's his name, Strife?"

"Vlad Tepez Draculea, Dracula for the writers."

"Well then, wake up Drake. You have a mission…"

T O B E C O N T I N U E D


	5. New disclaimer

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

After I finished this chapter it occurred to me that I'm in need of a new disclaimer. You probably already guessed which new characters don't belong to me, but to make it official I have to write it down.

DISCLAIMER:

All characters known from novels, musicals or movies with the name "The Phantom of the Opera" don't belong to me. They belong to Gaston Leroux, Susan Kay, Andrew Lloyd Webber and all the other people who own the rights.

Dracula also doesn't belong to me. He belongs to himself, but the novel is Bram Stoker's. The movie I'm using some elements from is a master piece of the work of Francis Ford Coppola.

The Greek Pantheon belongs to itself. The Hercules/Xena-Verse is the property of MCA/Universal, Studios USA and Renaissance Pictures. (I hope I got that one right)

Please tell me if you like my writing…


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